Waterfront Plan Calls for 500,000 SF Seafood Processing Complex

BOSTON-A group of area businessmen is putting together a plan to build a 500,000-sf, multimillion-dollar seafood market and processing complex along the South Boston waterfront. The project is expected to expand the area's maritime industry along the Inner Harbor.

The development team, advised by consulting firm Blue Wave Strategies whose partners include former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator John P. DeVillars, is planning to build the processing, packaging, cold-storage and shipping facility on about 30 acres of city land between the Massport Maritime Terminal and the Fish Pier. The facility could bring hundreds of jobs to the area, revitalize Boston's fishing fleet and help make the city the fresh seafood capital of the East Coast, DeVillars says. The project, if approved, would put the facility in an old shipyard and dry dock adjacent to the Bank of America Pavilion off Northern Avenue.

DeVillars declined to name the members of the development team, saying that the project, which is estimated to cost as much as $100 million, has not yet been presented to City Hall. The investors are presently forming a company to formally propose the complex to the city, which will decide on whether to make the land, owned by the city's Economic Development Industrial Corp., available for the project.

"At the stage of the project, it is important for us to fine tune this proposal and present it to elected and appointed officials before we are discussing it publicly," DeVillars says. He adds that the group expects to make that presentation in about one month. If city officials approve of the plan, it will go before the Boston Redevelopment Authority and state and federal environmental officials.

Paul Haley, former Massachusetts House Ways and Means chairman who currently works with Lehman Brothers, has been brought into the discussions and has indicated that the investment banking firm may be interested in providing bond financing for the construction, a source familiar with the proposal states. Financing for the project may be provided through taxable and tax-exempt bonds, which could cover up to 80% or 90% of the project's costs.

One of the project's hurdles may be the possible relocation to the Bank of America Pavilion, which is adjacent to the site. One possibility is to move the entertainment tent to the top of one of the complex's marine buildings, a source familiar with the plan tells GlobeSt.com.